IN the biggest ever indictment of the country’s judiciary, the CBI submitted a report to the Supreme Court holding a former supreme court judge along with 23 other sitting and retired judges of Allahabad High Court and lower court judges guilty of fraudulently withdrawing crores of money from the provident fund accounts of class III and IV employees in the Ghaziabad district court.

What was shocking indeed was the revelation by the Attorney General Mr G E Vahanvati representing the CBI to the apex court on Wednesday that the district judge was interfering with the trial by attempting to rope in the Uttar Pradesh police as prosecution in the case and asking CBI to take a backseat despite the fact that the apex court had entrusted the task of investigation to the CBI. He also requested the Supreme Court to shift the trial to Delhi. This was not for the first time Mr Vahanvati had made allegations against the district judge. On August 7, 2008, seeking a high-level probe into the involvement of several retired and sitting judges, including those from the higher judiciary in the fraudulent withdrawal of over Rs 70 million from the Ghaziabad district court treasury between 2001 and 2007, the senior counsel of Supreme Court, Mr Shanti Bhushan had alleged that “the Supreme Court is protecting corrupt judicial officials”. The allegation made Mr Justice B N Agrawal to withdraw himself from the bench. The bench had demanded withdrawal of the allegations, but Mr Bhushan stuck to his point and asserted that the judiciary cannot insulate itself from criticism. The filing of chargesheet by the CBI against the judges clearly points to the rot of corruption gradually creeping in the judiciary. We already have before us the case of Justice Nirmal Yadav of Punjab and Haryana High Court who has been accused of professional misconduct. The Union Law Minister, Mr Veerappa Moily is agreeable to the idea of pursuing the case against the judge under the scanner of investigators. It is important the judiciary cleanses itself of corruption. Judiciary and judges are perceived by the common people as demigods, because they are considered fair and all-seeing. If judges become corrupt, democracy in India will be at a very high risk. The recent cases suggest that some special mechanism is developed to prevent any corrupt judge or judges from using their privileges as shield until an accident causes the discovery of their corruption.